


I'll Never Say Goodbye

by iknowwrite



Category: ParkPark Couple
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23652118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iknowwrite/pseuds/iknowwrite
Summary: Park Seo Joon attends a friend's wedding and sees a familiar face
Comments: 22
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

Park Seo Joon knew something was going to go off beam today. His neck is dripping with sweat as he sprints his way from the parking lot to the hotel. He’s late for his friend’s wedding ceremony, and he was hoping to at least make it to the reception so he can deliver his toast to the newlyweds.

  
“Five minutes, man. Yeah, yeah, I just – hold on a second.”

  
He clips his phone between his left ear and shoulder as he fumbles through the glass door of the hotel, balancing a gift box on one hand.

  
He makes his exit from the hotel lobby to the poolside area where the reception is being held. He was setting the present down the gift table when someone greets him with a playful punch on the shoulder.

  
“Too early for tomorrow’s wedding, motherfucker.”

  
Seo Joon shrugs as he faces his friend. “Hey, I don’t know, but the bride and groom for tomorrow’s wedding don’t mind their wedding gift being delivered a day early. I mean, better safe than sorry. Traffic gets too bad these days."

  
Hyung Sik chuckles and welcomes him in a big hug. “Thanks for coming, man. You’re just in time, though. Bo Young’s friends prepared a program for this afternoon. It should start anytime soon, but feel free to help yourself at the buffet. The toast is not until when everyone’s a bit buzzed anyway.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m pretty famished after the long haul.” Seo Joon gives Hyung Sik a firm handshake when Bo Young arrives and wraps her arm around Hyung Sik’s back.

  
“They’re about to start. I’m pretty sure Seo Joon can keep himself entertained. We have a lot of beautiful single ladies in this party, after all.” She knowingly smiles at him.

  
“Hey, I’m not here for that. You two go ahead. You look stunning, by the way. Are you sure you married the right person?" Seo Joon wiggles his eyebrows at Hyung Sik. They all burst into laughter.

  
“Alright, alright. Enough of that. I’ll see you later, man.” Hyung Sik gives him a wave as Bo Young drags him to the presidential table. “And don’t you dare embarrass me!”

  
As Seo Joon begins to walk to an empty seat across the venue, he hears someone tap on the microphone. An eccentric-looking woman wearing a cornflower fascinator and a bejeweled sea-green dress begins to speak.

“Welcome, welcome. My name is Bora and I will be your host today as we celebrate the union of our dearest Hyung Sik and Bo Young. Let us give our new Mr. and Mrs. Park a warm round of applause.”

  
“Today, Hyung Sik and Bo Young’s friends made a special program for everyone. We will celebrate love and new beginnings through the wonderful gift of music. May I please welcome on stage our first performer, little miss Miso.”

  
Seo Joon cranes his neck to see who the first performer is. He was surprised to see a little raven-haired girl, probably aged four to five, making her way up the makeshift stage with an orange ukulele on her hand. She was wearing a turquoise lace dress with a lopsided flower crown on her dark, wavy tresses – the flower girls’ uniform, he notes. The girl – Miso – adjusts the microphone to her height like she’s been singing on stage all her life.

  
“Mm-hhm,” She clears her throat on the microphone and introduces herself.

  
“Annyeong haseyo, I’m six year old Park Miso.” The girl says with a little bow. “I’m singing this song as a gift for Hyung Sik samchon and Bo Young imo.”

  
The girl adjusts her ukulele and starts strumming the chords.

  
“Wow.” Seo Joon mutters to himself. His jaw slackens when the girl started to sing along.

>   
> _I wanna make you smile_  
>  _Whenever you’re sad_  
>  _Carry you around_  
>  _When your arthritis is bad_  
>  _All I wanna do is grow old with you_

  
Aside from the audible sighs and cheers of admiration that erupted among the crowd after the first few lines, everybody has stopped to listen to the raven-haired girl. Clearly Bo Young and Hyung Sik’s friends knew how to get everyone’s attention with the first number. Seo Joon himself couldn’t help but be entranced by her angelic voice. Suddenly, a man stands beside him to take photos of the girl. He sees him smiling as he checks the photos on his phone.

“She has a beautiful voice.” Seo Joon tells the man. “Yours?” he asks.

  
“Oh, hey, uhm.” The tall man chuckles as he continues to snap photos. “I guess you can say that”

  
“Oh, sorry, it’s just…the resemblance, is all.” Seo Joon blurts out, in case he had offended the man in any way.

  
“Oh, wait until you meet her mother.” He nods to the direction of the stage. Seo Joon tries to look the same way, and his eyes fall on a woman with short, black hair that looks nothing like the girl.

  
Their attention focuses back on Miso as the crowd begins to clap in tune to the chorus of the song.

>   
> _I’ll miss you, kiss you_  
>  _Give you my coat when you are cold_  
>  _Need you_  
>  _Feed you_  
>  _Even let ya hold the remote control_  
>  _So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink_  
>  _Put you to bed if you’ve had too much to drink_  
>  _It would be so nice_  
>  _Growing old with you_  
>  _I wanna grow old with you_

Seo Joon claps along with the cheering crowd. Miso mutters a shy “Kamsahamnida.” And makes her way down the stage. Seo Joon was pleased when the girl went to their direction to run into the man’s arms.

  
“Joon Gi samchon!”

  
The man – Joon Gi – lifts her up easily and tries to fix her flower crown.

  
“Hey there, Bunny-bunny. Great job!” the girl’s lips turn into a shy smile.

  
“Bunny-bunny?” Seo Joon asks.

  
“Her nickname. I gave it to her since she was very, very little.” he replies. “Ya, Bunny-bunny, say hi to…”

  
“Yong Gyu. Park Yong Gyu. Nice to meet you, little songbird.” Seo Joon lightly touches the tip of her nose. Miso wrinkles her nose as she let out a little scowl.

  
“Sorry about her sunny personality.” the man chuckles as he puts the child down. Seo Joon sees her hopping to the play area of the reception.

“One of the many things she unfortunately did not get from her mother. Unfortunately her name is Miso. She’s pretty when she smiles, but she rarely does.”

  
“No worries, she’s a kid. It can change.”

  
“If she’s anything like her mother… It’s Lee, by the way.” the man offers his hand to him.

  
“I’m sorry?”

  
“Lee Joon Gi imnida.”

  
“Oh, yeah. Are you…a relative of the newlyweds?” Seo Joon asks as he tries to remember where he has heard the surname before.

  
Joon Gi shakes his head, “A co-worker of Bo Young. How about you?”

  
“Hyung Sik is my long-time friend.” He replies. A phone rings and Joon Gi excuses himself.  “Sorry, man, but can you keep an eye on her while I take this call outside?”

  
“Yeah, sure.”

  
“Thanks.” Joonki walks to the door to the hotel lobby as Seo Joon sits down a chair where he can see Miso from a distance. He looks over the stage to see a four-piece band playing a medley of love songs. Seo Joon was trying to make out the title of the current song when Miso plops down the seat beside his.

  
“Annyeong,” Seo Joon greets her again. “You’re such a quiet girl. I didn’t hear you coming. Almost gave me a heart attack right there.” Seo Joon jokingly clutches to his chest while smiling at the child. Miso’s lips give away a small smile.

  
“That’s better. You’re even prettier when you smile.” Seo Joon tells her.

  
Miso shifts on her seat. Seo Joon notices how the girl looks longingly at the play area.

  
“Would you like to go back and play?”

  
Miso shakes her head and buries her chin on the collar of her dress.

  
“Okay. Do you want to wait for your Uncle or your mom here?”

  
She nods.

  
“How about we get pens and papers from there and we sketch on the table?”

  
Miso looks up to him and nods. The two of them walk to the play area. People are still buzzing around, and Seo Joon sees some familiar faces but doesn’t stop to chat with them. He was only a few steps away from the play area when a tiny hand tugs his pants. Miso hides behind him as a wide-eyed girl approaches them.

  
“Is he your Daddy?”

  
A taller girl strides to them and pulls the other girl away.

  
“He’s not. Miso doesn’t have an appa!” the girls laugh mockingly in unison.

  
Seo Joon feels Miso tug his pant leg even more. He takes this as a cue to pick up the child. “Aga-ya. Kwaenchana.” Seo Joon says as he turns around and picks up Miso. “Appa will pick out crayons for you, okay?” he says with a bit of emphasis on the word “Appa”.

  
The kids fall silent, and the taller girl stares at them with a gaping mouth. Miso stares at Seo Joon, tears threatening to run down her cheeks. Seo Joon makes his way to the kiddie table, still holding Miso in his arms. He picks several crayons and a few pieces of paper, and paces back to their table. He fails to notice when the girl rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his back.

  
“Hey, it’s okay.” He says as he rubs her back. Seo Joon starts to feel for the little girl in his arms. He begins to feel both pity and admiration towards the girl’s mother. Whoever she is surely did a great job raising such a talented and beautiful girl by herself. Seo Joon thinks he would be proud of Miso if she was his daughter.

  
They were halfway to their table when a voice rang through the microphone.

  
“Hi, everyone. I hope you’re having a wonderful time.”

  
It can’t be. Seo Joon thought. He froze on the spot when he hears the voice again.

  
“I’d like everyone to know that I’m here in front of you because one booze-filled winter night, I lost a bet to Bo Young. I bet that Hyung Sik will propose to her on a summer day, but he went ahead and proposed to her that same winter. Traitor.”

  
There she is, the raven-haired girl who vanished with his heart seven years ago. Seo Joon almost drops the crayons and papers in his hand. He shouldn’t be surprised. He had a strange feeling about coming here, after all.

  
Park Min Young has blossomed from being an awkward college freshman to the confident young woman that is on stage in front of him. She’s still beautiful, he thinks. She almost looks the same as when he first met her years ago, but with more poise. She still wears her signature long locks, but Seo Joon feels that there’s certainly something different about her now.

  
“I don’t really sing, so please excuse my voice, and I hope you continue to have a wonderful day. Bo Young-ah, Hyung Sik, this is for you.”

  
No excuses, Seo Joon thought. Her voice has always captivated him from the moment he heard her singing to herself as she waits for her classmates to arrive in their class. From then on, every sound that came from her lips was his poison -- from her singing voice to the tiny whimpers of _“Yong Gyu-yah, please.”_ and _"Yes, yes, yes,"_ that escape her as she unravels underneath him.

  
Min Young begins to play the piano. Seo Joon still can’t believe his eyes — from the fact that she is standing in front of her, to the fact that she sings in front of a crowd, even), and to the fact that she plays the piano. Suddenly, memories from eight years past came rushing back to him. Seo Joon feels Miso shift in his arms as Min Young starts to sing.

>   
> _Say goodbye_  
>  _Why I can barely say goodnight_  
>  _If I can hardly take my eyes from yours_  
>  _How far can I go_

When she entered their class on the second semester of that school year, the first thing Seo Joon noticed was the unfathomable scowl that was drawn on her face. It seemed to him that she was one of those freshmen who ran out of slots to other General Education courses and ended up with him in that boring writing class instead. But there was something to her that made him…curious. A few classes afterward, Park Yong Gyu found it hard to veer his eyes away from Park Min Young.

> _ Walk away  
> The thought would never cross my mind  
> I couldn’t turn my back on spring or fall  
> Your smile least of all _

The first time he saw her smile was when the professor returned her short story with a high remark. Park Min Young may be quiet and withdrawn, but she certainly had the gift of the written word. She wrote lyrical prose, and reading them felt like hearing her sing them. Seo Joon soon found himself hanging out with her in the shelter of the night to discuss their latest reads or writing seeds, and later on, to whisper prose onto each other’s skins.

> _ When I say always _

“Stay with me.” She asks him when he tries to slip away while she sleeps at night.

> _ I mean forever _

“Always.” He’d tell her before she falls back to sleep in his arms.

> _ I trust tomorrow as much as today  
> I am not afraid to say  
> I love you _

“I love you.” He’d told her one day when she attempted to make him breakfast and ended up burning everything because of him. She looked at him with vacant eyes. She had a panic attack in her bath afterward. She had told him before that she never wants to fall in love.

> _ And I promise you  
> I’ll never say goodbye _

“Min Young-ah, I got the grant!” He excitedly told her over dinner a few days before the summer break. “I leave in two weeks.” He made sure to bring Min Young to a lavish restaurant that night. He told her that afternoon he had some news to tell, and she said she had something to tell him, too.

  
He was too excited to take notice that the tears that were brimming in her eyes were not exactly tears of joy.

  
“Let’s celebrate, then.” She said.

  
When they went back to his apartment that night, Min Young pleasured him leisurely, deeply. There was no rushing, no chasing of each other’s release.

> _ How could I ever say goodbye _

It was only the week after, when Seo Joon has not heard from her, that he realized that Min Young wasn’t having sex with him that night – she was making love to him, for the first time.

She was saying goodbye.

Seo Joon snapped back to the present when he hears her speak again.

“Thank you and congratulations again, Bo Young-ah, and Hyung Sik. I wish you happiness in your married life, always. And I know I’m not the only one hoping to see a little Hyung Sik and little Bo Young soon.” The crowd laughs. “My child will surely appreciate another playmate anyway.” She smiles.

  
A c _hild._ Min Young has a child. Seo Joon looks around to find any beaming man with a toddler in his arms, but there wasn’t any. Maybe her child is still a baby that needs to be left behind at home. Maybe her husband was taking care of their child, he thought.

  
Min Young makes her way down the stage and walks to the presidential table to give hugs to the newlyweds. Miso suddenly wiggles from Seo Joon’s arms. When he puts her down, she dashes to the direction of the stage – no, to the table – and buries herself behind Min Young’ legs.

  
Min Young turns around to face the child and her lips turn up into a smile. Seo Joon felt his palms get cold. Min Young seems to be talking to Miso when the child points to his direction. Min Young looks his way, her face turning pallid at the sight of him. For the first time in almost six years, her doe eyes locked with his – only this time, another pair of doe eyes are looking directly at him.


	2. Reverberation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “falling in love could be achieved in a single word — a glance.”  
> Ian McEwan, Atonement
> 
> \---------------------------------------------------------------  
> Hi!
> 
> Apologies for posting the update very late. I've had a series of mental blocks and mental breakdowns over writing this chapter. I'm still not confident about this, but I'm posting it anyway.
> 
> I'd like to hear your thoughts, please. You may comment them below.
> 
> I am halfway through Chapter 3. If the writing flows continuously, I may be able to release it next week. No promises, though.
> 
> Special shoutout to my twitter friends who have ao3 accounts: rachelovebot and karenfrommisthaven!
> 
> P.S.
> 
> I've been getting mixed comments about the use of romanized Korean phrases. Some people like it, some don't. I'd like to know if most of you are fine with it because I will scrap it altogether and edit this chapter plus the previous one, if you don't.

They met in a writing class in the fall.

He sat on the last row of the lecture hall, a seat away from the window. Seo Joon likes to sit where he can see everyone in class, in the same manner that he likes to observe people outdoors. There were many familiar faces in class, most of them chatting with each other.

He was jotting down ideas on his journal when she entered the room. She walked with tentative steps, furrowing her brows as she looked far out to the last rows of the room, while clutching the straps of her bag with one hand and adjusting her yellow knit cardigan with the other. The class was not full, but she seemed indecisive as to where she would sit. He has never seen her before, and she did not seem to know anyone in the room. Seo Joon flipped to a new page and wrote his thoughts about this new face. 

He was too busy writing about her and how her long, raven locks must feel soft to the touch that he did not notice right away that she had walked towards the row in front of him until she put her bag on the seat beside her with a soft thud. She sat about four seats away to his left, and just about two seats away from the aisle. She took out a book and opened it about halfway through. A slightly beaten up copy of Plath — _The Bell Jar_ , he noted. She quietly flipped through the pages of her book, biting her lip in concentration, oblivious to everything that’s happening around her. Her fingers would toy with the upper right corner of each spread, only abandoning the paper when she would tuck her hair behind her ear.

When the professor, a man in his mid-40s, entered the room, she dog-eared the corner of the page she was reading before stashing it in her bag. _Bookmarks_ , he scribbled in his journal before he rushed to keep it in his bag. The professor started the class by asking them to look around the room and greet as many classmates, new and old, as they can.

He was not expecting her to look at his direction, but he must have stared at the back of her head too much and she felt it, for after exchanging a couple of nods with her row mates, she glanced at him.

Outside the window, the perpetual autumn overcast blankets the sky. But when her eyes met his, it was as though he was looking at the spring sunrise — radiant, golden, and warm, yet diffused with a kiss of coldness that leaves a soft, comforting feeling.

At that exact moment, he knew that he will not be staring out the window so much for the semester, at least for that class.

Seo Joon shakes the memory out of his head as he takes yet another shot of whiskey. It was a long day, and the night was still young, at least for someone who is jetlagging like him. He sits on the wingback chair of his hotel room, facing the window. He is still in a bath robe, his hair still partially wet from the long shower that he just took. His trunk that is filled with a week’s worth of clothes lay open on the floor, still packed, save for a few essentials that he needed for the night, that which includes the bottle of whiskey that he had wanted to share with the friends he would be meeting that week. _Fuck friends_ , he thought. He badly needs a drink right now.

He already had an inkling that something was going to happen in the wedding, but it never occurred to him that he would see her there. When he imagined meeting her again, he had thought of all possible scenarios — meeting her at a coffee shop, finding her book at the bookstore, or hell, bumping into pregnant Min Young with her husband — but never that way. All those years he thought that he would be able to take whatever would happen should they cross paths, but nothing has prepared him for the scene that unfolded before his eyes that morning.

He pours himself more of the amber liquid; he already lost count of how much he has drank. He just wants to be able to sleep soundly tonight, and was hoping that the alcohol would drown his thoughts away. But his mind is consumed by thoughts of her — thoughts that he refuses to entertain but are very, very persistent.

“ _Naneun babo-ya, jinjja…”_ , he chuckles to himself before taking the shot. If he was not able to free himself off in the seven years that she was gone, it would be close to impossible now. Every minute of his life has been marked by her absence -- since the day that she vanished, Seo Joon has always hoped to see her again, or at the very least to hear from her, even through friends. Throughout the years, the memorieshe has of her sustained him, yet every waking day he yearned for her.

His mind spirals off to that morning. When he first saw her on that stage, he was in disbelief. She was as beautiful as the girl in his memories, if not even more. The years have done her well, and surely there was something different about her, but he couldn’t tell exactly what it was.

He had wished he didn’t look too shabby. He would’ve freshened up if he had known she would be there, especially since she looked so radiant in that yellow dress that accentuated her shoulders, showing a sliver of the skin he liked to kiss softly when they share a bath in the tub or when he spoons her in the dead of the night.

When she said that she has a child, his heart sank. He knew he should be happy for her for finally having a little family of her own, but he had wished that it was with him. 

Little did he know that as he stood slack-jaw in awe and anticipation while watching her sing, he was carrying the child that he would eventually find out to be hers. When the child freed from his arms and ran towards her, he felt a drift of cold air through his spine.

When her gaze finally met his, the anticipation was hastily replaced by dread.

To Park Seo Joon, Park Min Young has always been the sunrise in the spring. But the woman who stood in front of him earlier that day gave him the exact opposite feeling. He never understood why she disappeared without saying a word, and now she’s was there, standing in front of him like a daydream. It did not help that there were two pairs of eyes boring into his soul at that time — hers, and that of her child.

_Her child_. Seo Joon heaves a heavy sigh at the memory of the child, Miso, whose name suits her well, whose voice is that of an angel, and whose father is apparently nowhere. 

_“Unless…”_ he tries to shun the idea again by taking a long hard swig of whiskey. Certainly if it was his child, she would have said so, he thought. But he could not steer clear of the thought that Miso could be his. He tries to recall what the child looked like, but she looks as much as her mother, as far as he can remember. After all, the man who was taking her photos even said so himself. 

The man — Lee Joon Gi — who told him he can well be Miso’s father, approached them and held Min Young by the waist as he guided them towards their seats. Both mother and daughter looked back at Seo Joon as they walked away.

His heart stung at the thought that she has moved on. It felt unfair that she was able to live a happy life in the years that passed, but Seo Joon tried to convince himself to feel happy for her. He gave her a sad smile, looked down at his feet, and sighed.

When the host opened the dance floor, Seo Joon saw Min Young dragging Miso in tow, walking towards the center to join Hyung Sik and Bo Young who were dancing their hearts out. The first music was an upbeat dance medley from the 80s, and soon the other guests were trickling in. 

Despite the number of people crowding the dance floor, he could easily make out Min Young and her child, for their big smiles radiated across the venue. If there’s anything that Min Young really loved, it was dancing. And clearly her child has taken that from her. 

When she paused to fix Miso’s lopsided flower crown, the music changed to a slow love song. People started going back to their seats, including Min Young, who was stopped in her tracks by Joon Gi who asked her to dance with him. Seo Joon took this as a cue to walk to the bar and get himself some booze, but a tug from the back of his coat stopped him from his tracks.

When he looked behind him, he saw Miso flashing him a cute little pout. “ _Ahjussi,_ where are my crayons?” she asked.

“Oh, uh, hold on a second.” He did not remember where he put them, so he re-traces his steps from earlier and finds them abandoned on a table near the spot where he stood when he watched Min Young. 

Seo Joon picked them up and handed them over to Miso. “Here you go. _Mianhae_ , Miso-ya, _ahjussi_ is old and forgetful.” Miso smiled as she took them, looked up to him, and said “ _Ahjussi_ , will you write with me?”

“ _Mwo?_ ” he asked, surprised by her question. “ _Araso_ , let’s go back to the table. _Ga-ja_.” he replied.

When they returned to the table, Miso gave him a piece of paper and a blue crayon. “ _Ahjussi_ will use blue crayon because you’re wearing blue. Miso will use pink, because it’s Miso’s favorite. _Omma_ likes white, but it can’t be seen on paper.” she chattered.

He waited as the child started to write. He thought that she was going to scribble like the other kids do, but was surprised when she started to write the date on the upper left corner of the paper, and _“_ Dear _Appa,”_ right below it.

Seo Joon watched the kid as she wrote her letter word per word. “Dear _Appa_ , Today is Hyung Sik _samchon_ and Bo Young _imo_ ’s wedding.” she wrote. “I sang a song today and played the uke. I was nervous. But people clapped for me.” she continued. For a six year old, her handwriting dexterity was impressive. He looked to the dance floor to see that Min Young was now dancing with Hyung Sik, and Bo Young with Joon Gi.

“ _Omma_ also sang a song today. And she played the piano. It was beautiful.” Miso paused and looked at him. “ _Ahjussi, ireumi mwoyeyo_? Yong…Woo? Young Joon?” she says while placing the tip of the crayon on her cheek.

“Yong Gyu. Park Yong Gyu, _ireumi_.” Seo Joon responded. Miso proceeded to write again. “I also met Yong Gyu _ahjussi_. He is handsome and he was kind to me.” she added. “Are you handsome like him, _appa?_ ”  
  
_Are you handsome like him, appa?_ Seo Joon doesn’t know why, but this question tore him apart. He should be flattered for the fact that a kid called him handsome, but for someone who has grown up being close to both parents, it tore his heart to know that little Miso has never seen her father’s face.

He was so preoccupied with watching the child write that he did not notice that Min Young was standing beside them until she spoke.

“ _Olaenman-iya_ , Park Yong Gyu.”

Seo Joon tousles his damp hair at the memory of her voice. His name rolled off from her lips like it was foreign yet familiar, but he would do anything to hear her say his name again.

He is refilling his glass when his phone rang. He stumbles his way to take his phone from the night stand. It must be her, he thinks, and fumbles to unlock his phone, but he is too inebriated to even swipe the call properly and ends up missing the call.

Maybe it was a bad idea to even pick up his phone, for his wallpaper was a photo he took of her one summer weekend that they spent at the beach. She was standing on the shore, close to where the waves dribbled onto the sand. Her long, soft hair was being blown by the breeze. Her body, clothed in an olive swimsuit, was angled towards the direction of the sea, but she was facing him with a smile that lit up her face. He has attempted to change his wallpaper many times, but he always comes back to this. This photo has always given him relief, but in this instance it tore his heart to many pieces.

The phone rings again. It was the same unknown number. He is able to answer the call this time. He places the receiver on his ear and waits for the person on the other line to talk. 

“ _Yeoboseyo_ …?” the voice was too familiar for him to be mistaken. 

“Yong Gyu-ya, _na-ya_ …” she says. When she was met with silence, she continues. “I know it’s late. But I wanted to tell you something and Miso was being fussy until she fell asleep. _Mian_. Anyway…maybe you don’t want to talk. Sorry. I guess I’ll just hung up. _Chal-ja_.”

“C _hamkan_ —“ he stops her from abruptly ending the call. He ponders on how to say what was on his mind. “What—what is it?”

“Oh…I just…I just wanted to say thank you. For taking care of Miso today. She told me what happened. _Gomawo._ ”

He recalls the scene with Miso’s playmates and how he looked after her at the table.

“It’s nothing. Really. You…you have an amazing child, Min Young-ah.”

A long pause. He can hear her shuffling something over the line. “Oh…ne… _kamsahamnida.”_ he hears her take a deep breath. _“Keunde,_ Yong Gyu-ya _…_ would you…would you like to have dinner tomorrow? If, only if you want to, of course.”

“ _Mwo?_ ” he blurted. He was surprised to hear her ask him out, considering that she appears to be seeing someone already.

“I mean, if you don’t mind…but it’s okay if you don’t want to. I — I’d understand. I just want to personally thank you, that’s all.” she stutters.

Seo Joon pinches the bridge of his nose as he briefly considers his options. If I decline, she may never ask again, he thinks.“ _Ani. Kwaenchanha._ I’ll…pick you up for dinner tomorrow?”

_“_ Oh…” She seems surprised with his answer. “G _eurom_ …you can pick us up at 6? I will text you the address.”

“Okay, _araso. Chal-ja,_ Min Young-ah.” he replies.

“ _Ne…chal-ja,_ Yong Gyu-ya.” 

“Oh…” He ends the call right away, for he knows that he might end up saying things he shouldn’t if he keeps on with the conversation. He looks at his phone wallpaper again as he slumps on his hotel bed.

It dawns upon him that that he would never be able to escape her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My most favorite chapter yet.
> 
> Thoughts? Feel free to comment below :)

The hotel drapes that he forgot to shut from last night gave way for the harsh sun to shine onto his face. He wakes up with a terrible headache, still dressed in his robe. He slept with his phone in his hand. He sits up and checks the time — it’s 9:00 AM. The half empty bottle of whiskey and the glass with the shot that he poured last night lay abandoned on his hotel desk. He remembers talking to her last night. His mind may be fuzzy from the alcohol, but he was certain that they talked about meeting up today. To leave no room for doubt, he checks his phone for the time stamp of their conversation. She called him at 2:04 AM. Not only was it the alcohol, but also the apparent lack of sleep. The call lasted for only a little over two minutes — long enough for him to remember but still short enough to prevent him from saying anything that he would have eventually regretted.

He forgets, however, the time that he was supposed to meet with her. But he remembers that it’s for dinner, so he has plenty of time to prepare. “Prepare for what?” he mutters. It’s not as if they’re going out on a real date, yet his mind wishes to think that they are.

When he stands up to take a shower, he almost immediately falls back on the bed. It was the first time he’s had a hangover like this in years. He pulls his hair in an attempt to alleviate the headache, to no avail. A quick dial to the room service is left as his best option. As he waits for the hangover medicine that he requested for, he lies down on the bed and finds his eyes closing despite involuntarily. His doorbell rings a few blinks later, or perhaps a bit longer. He forces himself to stand up and walk to the door. He thanksthe hotel crew and immediately opens the bottle to drink the medicine right away. He lies on the bed as the medicine settles and was lulled to sleep as he waited for it to works its magic.

He wakes up a few hours later. He tries to stand up again and struggles to find his footing, but feels a lot better now. It’s a quarter past 2:00 PM. He should start getting ready to meet her. He unlocks his phone and sees messages from her number. He makes a mental note to save her number for later.

_Here’s the address._ She texted, along with a location pin. It’s a school address. She must be picking up Miso, he thought. He remembers her saying something along the lines of “Pick us up.”, unless his memory is inventing things, like how he would create images of her in his head all the years that she was gone. While he can’t be too sure that he remembers it right, he finds himself smiling at the thought of seeing the child again. It’s something that he never thought would excite him. But if the child is _indeed_ coming with her…

He hurriedly types a message for her. _I have a bit of a problem._

After a few minutes, she calls him. She still hates text messages, he reckons and smiles to himself before accepting the call.

“Yong Gyu-ya. Why? What is it?” There are other voices in the background, and including that of a man whose voice sounded like…

“ _Yeoboseyo?_ Yong Gyu-ya…Hello?” He did not notice that his mind wandered for a while until she prodded him.“Oh. _Ne._ Min Young-ah, _eodiya_? I can hear a lot of people…” he probes.

“ _Mian_. I’m still at work. But what’s the problem, Yong gyu-ya? Do you…need a raincheck? I mean, you sounded pretty hammered last night…” 

“ _Mwo? Ani. Aniyo_. Of course not. Did I..? I mean, do you..?” He walks around his room as he struggles with the conversation. Maybe she wanted to bail out from seeing his stupid, hungover self. 

“I’m sorry — what?”

He can feel his embarrassment creeping to his cheeks. “No, no. I mean. I’m not making sense, _mianhae_. I don’t need a raincheck. _Do you_ , though?”

“Well, no. Of course not. Miso will sulk at me if we don’t go.”

“Oh.” he stops walking around when he hears the child’s name. 

“Oh, what?”

“Miso is coming with you?”

“ _Ne_ , Miso is coming.”

“Ahh…there’s my answer then.”  
  
“ _Wae_ …is it a problem? If it is, I can ask someone to babysit. It’s just that, well, she was bugging me last night about the “ _meotjin ahjussi_ ”…”

_“Meotjin ahjussi?_ Maybe she’s talking about a different _ahjussi_ , then?” he jests.

“Park Yong Gyu.” she utters. “She remembers your name clearly. What’s the matter, though?”

“Is that so? Ahh.. _keunde_ …It’s just that I’m just renting this car for the week, and…well, she’s six, right? I mean, is that her international age or…?” 

“Her international age is six.” she confirms. “She forgets about her Korean age most of the time.” she chuckles. “Is it about the car seat? If you’re worried about a car seat, don’t worry about it. We have one that we can use.” 

“Oh. _Ne._ _Araso._ ”

“Sorry, I have to return to work now. Is that all?”

“ _Ne_ , Min Young-ah. Go ahead, then. See you later.”

“ _Araso_. We’ll see you at 6. And again, don’t bother to buy a car seat. We have it covered.”

“ _Ne_. See you later.” He ends the call and drops his phone on the bed. Does motherhood come with an ability to read minds? He thinks. Min young has always been intuitive, but he feels like motherhood has made her intuition even sharper. It was like she plucked the questions out of his mind and answered them all before he can even ask.

He goes to the shower to take a long bath and turns shower knob until the flow is strong enough to give his aching muscles a massage. It was not only from sleeping in a weird position, but from the long haul flight that he took just the day before. If he felt terrible last night, today he feels like shit. The hangover medicine was able to relieve his dizziness, but he still feels the acid in his stomach. He’s definitely not in his best shape to meet with Min Young tonight, but he is not about to ditch her when he has waited for this moment for seven years.

He spends more time under the shower and remembers the first time they talked.

It was November. They’d been working on several individual outputs for literature class, but that day they were asked to find a partner critic who will work with them for several exercises within the semester. They were told to sit beside whoever they wish to be paired with, and have a little chitchat. Seo Joon rushed to pick up his bag and notebook to approach her. He knew of the other guys in the room who were eyeing her, and he wanted to be the one to ask her first. He knew that competitors can’t be avoided. After all, she was one of the prettiest faces in the university, if not the most beautiful of them all. 

It should be easy, he thought. After all, she’s literally a few seats away. But when he strode to her seat, the strap of his bag got caught on the armrest of his chair. The notebook that he was holding flew from his hand and landed on the floor with a thump. The noise he made was loud enough to have caught the attention of the class, including Min young’s, who looked at him first and then at his notebook which lay open on the floor. It was when he realized that the pages of his notebook flipped to the part where he stuck the bookmark that he’d made for her. 

If it were an ordinary bookmark, it would have been easy to shrug it off as nothing. But the one that he made — a pressed red camellia, laminated with clear film — had small brass charms of her initials, _M_ and _Y_ , tied at the end of its ribbons. He had asked his friend, Jin Joo, to help him make it, as the flower pressing was her idea anyway. She was also the one who thought of the letter charms to “make it more personal”. He thought it was too forward, but Jin Joo insisted.

Min Young looked at the bookmark, and then at him. After exchanging glances, he picked up the bookmark along with his other belongings, and sauntered towards her, never averting his gaze. When he stood in front of the seat beside hers, he extended his arm to give her the bookmark. The mishap forced him to give it to her at that moment, when in fact he had been carrying the bookmark in his bag for a week now, and had been meaning to come to class earlier than she does to be able to place it on her seat anonymously. For the entire week, he had successfully arrived in class earlier than she does. But he had not been successful in mustering up the courage to put it on her table.

“For you.” he muttered. He could not believe how tongue-tied he was. He was way better than this. In fact, he was known to be good with sweet-talking all the ladies to get into their pants. If his friends found out what he had become towards a girl, they would not stop teasing him, he thought. But Park Min Young was not like any other girl. He had known this from the moment he first laid his eyes on her. Even though at that time, he did not know yet that she would become special to him — so special that he would keep on loving her for almost seven long years, despite having his heart torn and ripped apart by her disappearance.

She looked at him, and then at the bookmark on his hand, and back at his face.“I, well, I noticed that you dogear your books.” He nodded at the direction of her book that lay on the seat beside hers.

“ _Kamsahamnida._ ” She took the bookmark from his hand and examined it. 

“May I?” he gestures to the seat beside her, where her book lay. She nods and clears the seat to make room for him. When he sat down, he remembered that he had not introduced himself properly yet.

“I’m Yong Gyu. Park Yong Gyu. In case you haven’t heard the professor call out my name for not paying attention to him.” he said with a shy smile. At the back of his head, he hoped she hasn’t. His name was called out several times in class all because he was caught staring at her.

“I’m Min Young. Park Min Young.” She toyed with the letter charms of the bookmark. “ _Hajiman_ , it seems like you already know my name.” She looked at him and returned his smile.

They agreed to meet later that day, and chatted a bit over vendo machine coffee on the steps of the building. He found out that she is an only child, and that she spent two years traveling around the US with her parents before returning to Korea for college. Lucky for him, he thought, because had it not been for those two extra years, she would have been a junior and he would not have had this chance.

He also learned that she likes her coffee black, especially when iced, and that she really loves flowers. He thanked Jin Joo later that day, and swore to do whatever she tells him to for an entire week.

When Min Young arrived in class the next day, Seo Joon saw the brass charms dangling from the top of her book.

He had given her several bookmarks thereafter, each with a flower that blooms in the season they were given in. But he was never able to give her a real bouquet.

As he steps out of the shower, he makes a mental note to buy her flowers tonight.

He arrives at the mall a little over an hour later. It was still early, so he went to a cafe to have his first meal of the day. He enjoyed the sound of people conversing in the Korean language, something he had only heard in the numerous Korean TV series that he had watched, if only for the comfort of hearing the language of his own while he was away. Living away far from home is always in equal parts happy and lonely. He would often find solace in libraries, cafes, and flower gardens, which ironically, are places that she loved to frequent whether alone or with him.

It was still early when he finished his meal, so he decides to wander around the mall to look for a flower shop and a book shop. He was thinking of getting Miso a book or a set of pens when something inside a kids’ essentials shop caught his eye. As he was browsing for toys for Miso, Min Young’s words about Miso’s age reverberate in his mind. _Her international age is six._ If he counts backwards from any given month that has passed, he will always stop at a month when he and Min Young were still together. His head throbs at the possibility that the child could be his, but his heart aches at the other possibility that Miso may not be his child and that the latter may be the reason why Min Young left him. He shrugs off his thoughts to continue shopping. There is only one way to find out, and he will find it out later.

After about an hour, just when he finishes loading the bouquet inside his car, his phone rings.

“Hi. Are you on your way yet?”

“ _Ne_ …maybe around 15 minutes? I’m not too far away.” He senses the worry in Min Young’s voice. “ _Wae_? Is there a problem? Do you need me to stall or…maybe hurry up?” He fixes the bouquet on the passenger seat and flings the door shut.

“Ani…it’s just…” there was hesitation in her voice. In the background, he can hear several footsteps and several voices — that of Miso, and that of a man’s, similar to the one he has heard from earlier today.

“I'm actually at the nearby mall right now. Do you need me to get you anything?” Heasks her as he moves to the other side of the car to place Miso’s present on the rear left seat.

“Ah, _aniya_. It’s just that, we will have to head over to the restaurant ourselves. _Mianhae._ ”

“Oh.” His hand pauses on the door latch. “Is that so?”

She must have sensed the disappointment in his voice. “ _Chesong hamnida_ , Yong Gyu-ya. _Jinjja._ I’ll text you the place?”

“ _Araso. Kwaenchanha_ , Min Young-ah. Please be safe. I’ll see you in a while.”

“ _Ne. Chesong hamnida. Cheongmal_.”

“ _Ani._ I’ll see you in a bit. _Geurom._ ” Seo Joon takes the stuffed bunny out of the bag, opens the car door, and places it on the car seat that he had just bought for the child. He wants to think nothing ill of it, but he couldn’t shake off the sense of foreboding that came with the sudden change of plans.

He lets out a sigh and talks to the stuffed toy instead. “Let’s put on your seatbelt, shall we?” He buckles the car seat seatbelt and messes up its pink ribbon in doing so. He fixes it and sighs. His phone beeps with her message of the restaurant location pin. He pockets his phone, gets into the car, and programs the car GPS to his destination. On the rearview mirror, he looks at at the stuffed bunny and smiles, “ _Gaja,_ let’s go see your new friend.”

He arrives at the restaurant ahead of them. Seo Joon steps inside the cafe. It’s a quaint cafe that looked just like the one in the next town which they frequented years back. It also has an al fresco area with globe string lights, and lit tea candles on each wooden table. It is eerily similar, save for the white upright piano on a roofed corner near the enclosed dining area.

He recalls the first time he took her to that cafe. It was their first date — except, it wasn’t really a date. Seo Joon took her there one Saturday afternoon when they needed a quiet place to work on their first output together. They needed to critique each other’s short stories and work out revisions together over the weekend, and he thought it was too forward to ask to work in her apartment, or to offer his place, unless she would offer hers first. She said she wanted to study in a cafe, but all the cafes around town were brimming with people at the time. He told her that he knows of a cafe over the next town, whose owners he’s friends with, and that he can call them to reserve a table in advance.

There was only the two of them in the al fresco area of the cafe. They worked until sunset, and when the string lights were lit, Min Young’s eyes sparkled along with them. She had to pause from working on their output just to stand up and marvel at the garden lights. “Do you want to take a break?” he asked her. She nodded and smiled at him “It would have been nice if they put on some music, though.” She pouted and sighed. The cafe had no sound system nor speakers of any sort. “ _Chamkan._ ” he said, as he disappeared into the enclosed dining area.

When Seo Joon came back, he was carrying a tray with two glasses of wine and an empty bowl. He set the tray on the table, picked up one glass of wine, and gave it to her.

“ _Mwoya?_ Where did you get these?” 

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled, “I have connections.”

“Aissh. Stop boasting.”

“ _Wae?_ It’s true. Just enjoy the drink and the music.”

“ _Mwo?_ ” she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Seo Joon smiled and looked down on his phone. “What is this _babo_ talking about? There’s no music…” she said, talking to herself as she sips some wine.

Just then, the intro of a slow dance song played audibly from his phone that was sitting in the empty bowl on the table. Min Young looked at Seo Joon and said “Really?”

“ _Wae?_ You don’t like it?”

She took his phone from the bowl and shoved it to his chest. “Change the song.”

He typed in his passcode and returned the phone to her. “Just pick whatever you want.”

Min Young browsed for a few seconds until she found a song that she liked, and put the phone back inside the bowl. When the verses of _Dancing in the Moonlight_ started to play, she started to bounce on her feet to sway to the music. He watched her in awe as she danced and had fun by herself. It was his first time seeing her so blissful and carefree, and for Park Seo Joon, it was the most enchanting sight. She later asked him to dance with her, and they danced and laughed under the moonlit skies.

The next time they went back, the cafe had already mounted a speaker system.

He was broken off of his thoughts with a loud smack on his back. “ _Annyeong haseyo_ , Park Yong Gyu — or should I say, Park Seo Joon-ssi?”

He looks behind him and sees the girl behind the bookmarks. “Ya, Park Jin Joo! What brings you here?”

Jin Joo takes a step back and crosses her arms over her chest. “Doesn’t this place give you a deja vu?”

“ _Seolma..?_ Woah. Woah…you really did it? _Daebak_ …”

Jin Joo shakes her head “You still don’t believe in my capabilities until now? Aish…jinjja.”

“ _Ani,_ I’ve always believed in the majesty of Jin Joo.” Seo Joon says as he fakes a curtsy. They both chuckle at their silliness.

“ _Keuman._ You’re already giving me goosebumps. What brings you here anyway?”

“Ah, I’m meeting someone.” he rubs his nape with one hand and checks his watch on the other. “But it seems like they’re running late.”

“Ah, I see. Is it…someone I know?”

“Oh…” Seo Joon’s foot toys with a leaf on the pebbled floor.

Jin Joo nods in understanding. “ _Araso_. Enjoy your dinner, then. You can request some music if you want to. You know the drill. Or...you can just play the piano for her.” she jests with a knowing look.

Seo Joon shoots her a questioning look. “Ah, look at the time. I have to go now. _Appa_ is waiting for me in your favorite branch in the next town. Enjoy the night, okay?” she pats his back and walks towards the exit. He trails behind her to see her off, and waves her good bye when she gets in her car.

He walks to his own car to get the flowers and the stuffed toy. He places them over the trunk of the car and checks the time. It’s 6:45 PM. He decides to send a message to Min Young. _I’m here_ , he types. When he was about to hit send, a car pulls over the curb of the restaurant. The driver’s door swings open and a familiar man sprints over to the other side to open the passenger seat door. It was Lee Joon Gi. After Min Young alighted the car, he opens the rear door next, snaps some buckles, and carries Miso from the car to the curb. Joon Gi says something to Min Young, and raises his hand at Miso for a high five. He then gets inside his car and drives away. Seo Joon decides not to move an inch until the mother and daughter are inside the cafe, but Miso was quick to spot him and point at him. Seo Joon waves at them and they walk to his direction.

“Hi. Sorry, we’re late.”

“Ah. Ani.” he shakes his head. He picks up the bouquet to give it to Min Young. “For you.” he says with a reserved smile.

“Tulips.” she smiles as she examines the flowers, albeit with a tinge of sadness in her eyes. “ _Gomawo,_ Yong Gyu-ya. They’re beautiful. You shouldn’t have bothered though.” She continues to examine the flowers with a sad smile on her face.

“Don’t mention it.” He couldn’t keep looking at her. Not when she looks like she’s on the verge of crying. Not when she’s too beautiful in her blue floral dress that fell right above her knees. Not when he just saw her with another man just a few minutes ago.

He averts his attention to Miso instead. “ _Keunde,_ Miso-ya…will you close your eyes for me?” 

Miso looks at him with a questioning stare before closing her eyes. “No peeking.” Seo Joon looks at Min Young, who was smiling at the sight, before picking up the toy and kneeling on the pavement to be level with the child.

“And…open.” Miso shows a toothy grin when she sees the stuffed bunny. She takes it from Seo Joon’s hand and gives it a hug. “You have the same bow. See?” Seo Joon points out the stuffed toy’s ribbon and Miso’s pink hair bow. Miso touches her hair bow and looks at Min Young, smiling.

“ _Chamkan._ ” Min Young hands Seo Joon the bouquet and takes her phone out of her purse. “Miso-ya, show me your toy.” 

Miso flips the toy to face the camera, brings it near her cheek, and smiles. Seo Joon steps back and watches in admiration at the sight. The child surely got her mother’s smile. But what he admires the most is the glow that motherhood has brought to Min Young. The way she was beaming at her child as she takes her photo and the joy in her eyes as she was reviewing the photos that she took all makes him realize that motherhood suits her well.

“ _Aigoo_ , _uri_ Miso is so pretty. Look at them.” she shows the photo to Seo Joon, like the proud mother that she should. Miso is even more photogenic, just like her mother.

“ _Ne_ , _neomu yeppeo_.” he mutters. He finds himself staring at Min Young yet again, drawn by the beauty of her face and of the skin on her shoulders, softly lit by sunset. 

She notices this and clears her throat. “Shall we enter the cafe? I’m kinda hungry. Aren’t you?” she says with an awkward chuckle. “Miso-ya, _gaja_.” Min Young takes the flowers from Seo Joon’s hands and leads the way to the cafe.

Seo Joon points his arm to the direction of the cafe entrance and saunters behind them.

“Ah, I will order for us. What are you getting? I already know ours.” Min Young says when she reaches their table. He wanted to be the one to buy them dinner, but he distinctly remembers that tone of her voice, the one that says no ifs and buts, so he gave way.

“Let’s see, hmm. Do they still have that pasta?” he smiles a knowing smile as he tests her memory.

“I see you’ve already figured, hmm? They did well, didn’t they?” she grins. “Herb and tomato, right?. _Araso._ Drinks, maybe?”

“Do they serve white wine now, too?” He quips. Min Young shakes her head and chuckles. “I believe that was a special request that was granted on a whim from many years back. Coffee?”

“Americano. Iced.”

“Okay. I’ll go get it.” she looks at Miso, who is still playing with her toy. “Miso-ya, just sit still, okay? You will play the piano later after dinner.”

She then turns to Seo Joon. “I’ll be back. Keep an eye on her for me?”

“ _Ne._ ” he nods. _I’ll be back._ He had told her those three words seven years ago, not knowing that it will be her who would disappear without a word. Seo Joon shifts his attention to the child in front of him before he slips into nostalgia again. Miso has her mother’s lips and her mother’s eyes, but her eyebrows are not Min Young’s and so are her ears. Her fingers are long for a girl’s, and she seems quite tall for her age.

“ _Ahjussi, gomawo-yo.”_ The child blurts out of the blue.

“Do you like it?” 

“Mm-hmm. I wanted a stuffed toy for my birthday, but _omma_ said I already have a lot. But now I have one because _ahjussi_ gave me one.”

“ _Cheongmal?_ Well…I think the heavens heard your prayer because some angel whispered to me this morning and told me to get you a stuffed toy.”

Miso frowns and shakes her head. “ _Aniyo_. If the heavens really listen to me, my _appa_ would have been back a long time ago.”

Seo Joon stops his jaw from gaping open after hearing this. All of his interactions with the child involves an anecdote about her father, and it’s hounding him and his thoughts even more.

“Miso-yah, I’m pretty sure the heavens gives us what we want when the time is right.” He pats the stuffed toy on its ears. “You see, you asked for this on your birthday and you got it only now. You had to wait for a while, right?”

She shakes her head harder this time. “But it was only one month. But _appa_ has been away forever.”

_A month?_ He thinks. If Miso was born sometime in April six years ago, it means that she was conceived in the summer of the year when he left.

Seo Joon had left in the fall.

His thoughts are cut off as Min Young arrives with their food.

“Here you go.” she fixes their plates on their respective seats. “Mini pancakes for my baby, herb and tomato linguine for you, and this one for me.”

“Carbonara?” he remembers that she is not a fan of that particular pasta.

“Some things change.” she smiles. “And a lot of things change, when you have a child. Miso likes carbonara.” she explains as she scoops a little bit of her pasta to transfer it on Miso’s plate. “But she can’t finish even the smaller serving. So I just get one for myself and give her a portion. Otherwise, I end up wasting food or money or having to eat her leftovers.”

“Ah. I see.” 

“I’m sorry we were late. We had some problems in school.”

“You mean, Miso..?”

“Ah, aniyo. It’s with the other teachers and the curriculum…I teach kindergarten with Bo Young. Miso goes to the same school I teach in.”

Bo Young? Kindergarten? He remembers Lee Joon Gi saying that he’s Bo Young’s colleague, so it must really have been his voice over the phone earlier that day. 

“Then…Lee Joon Gi-ssi…?”

“Ah, ne. Joon Gi also teaches there. He teaches music.”

“Ahh…”

“How…how have you been, Yong Gyu-ya? It’s been a long time.”

How has he been? Since he set his eyes on her yesterday, to the revelation that she now has a child, and to the emotional rollercoaster that he has had since then, he is not quite sure how to reply to her.

“I’ve been good. You…you seem to be doing good yourself.”

“When someone is depending on you, you haveno choice but to do good.” she smiles. “I’ve been reading your works on your website, Park Seo Joon-ssi.” she teases. “Your writing still entrances me. I’m very happy for your success. I like your pen name, too. But I like your real name better.” 

His hands freeze when he hears this. If she has been following his site, then she has surely read everything that he wrote about her — from how he fell in love with her until how she had broken him. How can she remain cool and unfazed about it, knowing that all of it was her?

“ _Kamsahamnida._ I hope to read some of your works, too. Do you still write?”

Min Young looks down on her plate and sighs. “I stopped writing many years back. I tried, but, I don’t know. Maybe it’s not for me.”

Lies. Seo Joon knows that she writes even better than he does. Here she goes with her self-deprecation again.

“Keunde, Yong Gyu-ya. How long are you staying for?”

“I’m moving back. My apartment will not be ready until after a week, so I’m staying at at the hotel in the meantime.”

“Oh. That’s…good to hear.”

“ _Omma_ , I’m done.” Miso announces. “Can I play the piano now?”

“Okay. _Araso.”_ Miso smiles and hops to the piano with her stuffed toy. “Yong Gyu-ya, I’ll just go and get the coffee. Can you please keep an eye on her?”

Seo Joon nods. When Min Young leaves, he turns his chair to face the direction of the piano. Miso had placed her stuffed bunny on top of the upright piano. She was barely sitting on the chair. Seo Joon thought that the child was going to play random keys, like any ordinary 6 year old. But when the first notes of Moonlight Sonata started to play, Seo Joon was dumbfounded.

Miso was playing the Beethoven piece with mastery. If at the wedding he had already thought that Min Young raised her child well, he is all the more impressed now.

But what struck him the most was that out of all the piano pieces that the child can play, it had to be the piece that he would play for Min Young when they would sneak in the university’s music room back then. 

He was too engrossed with Miso’s playing that he failed to notice that Min Young was back until she spoke. “She likes that piece a lot.”

He turns around to face her. _“Cheongmal?”_

“Mm-hmm. I keep on telling her that it’s a sad song, and it makes me sad. But she likes it a lot.” 

“ _Wae?_ ”

“Hmm?”

“Why does it make you sad? You used to like that song a lot, too.”

“ _Itchana_ …it reminds me of the good memories. And sometimes happy memories hurt more than the sad ones.” she answers while looking at the direction of the piano and her child.

“I guess you’re right.” he agrees, and they exchange a sad smile. He still has so many questions he wants to ask her, and he thinks that now may be the right time to ask them when the child is out of earshot.

“ _Keunde_ , Min Young-ah. Lee Joon Gi-ssi… How long have you been together?”

“ _Ne?_ ”

“It’s just…he seems very close with Miso. And I saw you earlier. I just don’t want to cause any problems between you two.”

“Ah…ani. Lee Joon Gi-ssi is…he’s been with us since Miso was two. And we’ve been working in the same school for about two years now. I mean, he’s a special friend.And Miso likes him a lot. _Hajiman_ , it’s not what you think.”

“I see.” he nods while trying to understand what exactly she means by _special friend_.He then decides to ask her the question that’s been bugging him since the morning. 

“Miso has been telling me about her father.”

“ _Ne?_ ”

“During the wedding, she got bullied when her friends said she did not have a father. When you were dancing, she sat with me and wrote to her absentee father.” He looks up the sky as if mustering up all his composure. “When you were getting our food, she told me that her father has been gone since forever.”

“Oh…”

“You said that reason why you asked me for dinner tonight is because I came to her rescue when her classmates were teasing her. But I strangely feel like there’s something else. Min Young-ah, I know that it’s not my business to ask, but is there anything you wish to tell me?”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“You know that there are a lot of questions you owe me answers to. In my head, when I was away, this was not one of them. So please, just tell me.”

Min Young takes a step towards him and takes his hands with both of hers, her hands trembling and her eyes brimming with tears. “Yong Gyu-ya… _mianhae.”_

_“Omma!”_ They were disrupted by applause of the other people in the cafe, and by the subject of the conversation herself, who ran from the piano into Min Young’s arms.


End file.
